photo credit: BMann
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From the press release
This past weekend, Toronto Comic Arts Festival came to life at the Toronto Reference Library, and Vepo Studios were there to catch it all for Whazamo!:Ontario Graphic Novel Month on Open Book Toronto.
We wanted to share with you this video of highlights from the day starring such comic and graphic novel luminaries as Bryan Lee O’Malley (Scott Pilgrim), James Turner (Rex Libris), and Mariko Tamaki (Skim) and a surprise appearance from Cory Doctorow (Little Brother/BoingBoing)!
You can check it all out here on you tube:
or at the Open Book Toronto site as part of Whazamo! Ontario Graphic Novel Month:
http://www.openbooktoronto.com/whazamo
And if you missed it, you can also catch our behind the scenes story of the photo-web comic A Softer World here:
Whazamo! Ontario Graphic Novel Month is a collaboration between Open Book: Toronto, the Toronto Comic Arts Festival and the production company Vepo Studios. Look for daily updates throughout May on the Open Book: Toronto website at: www.openbooktoronto.com.
UPDATE: Launch is Thursday night, in my enthusiasm I thought it was tonight.
Biblioasis’s only Vancouver-area launch of 2009 is happening Thursday, May 14! Come to the launch Cynthia Flood’s The English Stories. Publisher Dan Wells says “The English Stories is a quiet marvel of a collection, and certainly one of the highlights of our 2009 list. I’m hoping that you’ll consider coming to the Sylvia Hotel and giving it the launch it deserves.”
Thursday, May 14
7-9 pm
Bistro Bar at the Sylvia Hotel
1154 Gilford St
Vancouver
Hey kids this is what we called a rotary dial telephone. It was used to make and receive phone calls. Weird, I know.
Oh the curtains will be coming up on Salome tonight at the Vancouver Opera.
It is an opera in one act so it’s hard for me to gauge when things will be happening timewise so I’ll tell you a little about it.
Salome, the opera, is by Richard Strauss, the libretto by Hedwig Lachmann, and it’s based on Oscar Wilde’s stage poem of the same name.
We start on the roof-top terrace. Narraboth, the young captain of the guard, watches the stepdaughter of Herod, Salome, at a banquet in the palace. He is besotted.
Salome’s father, Herod, has imprisoned John the Baptist. Amidst the sound of bickering banquet guests is the sound of John the Baptist prophesying the coming of the Messiah. John is usually portrayed as a strange man, think homeless with crazy hair. I’ll be interested in how this John is costumed.
The banquet is a bore. Salome leaves, hears the prophet, and decided to seek him out. He’s cursing her mother’s poor lifestyle choices (marrying the brother who killed her husband, you know how it is in these operas).
John is brought before Salome, who is reacts with a teenager reaction of freaky fascination. She wants to touch his skin, his hair, his lips. She’s obsessed. It’s rude. It’s weird. Then she wants a kiss. The prophet curses her.
Oh that besotted captain dies at some point here, which sets off Herod’s series of bizarre hallucinations. Depending on the staging, this is one of those stories that might be comprehensible if seen stoned. It’s a bit of a trip.
All of this leads up to the Dance of the Seven Veils.
This is where the nudity happens. Salome does a bit of a strip tease dance, and her reward is the execution of any of her heart’s desires, which happens to be the head of the prophet on a silver platter. Take a toke.
Her father freaks out and offers jewels, peacocks, half his kingdom, even the sacred veil of the Temple of the Jews, but Salome is determined.
There’s a bit of a necrophilia kissing of the severed head, which disgusted everyone and leads to Salome’s own death.
As I said, it’s a controversial and wildly seductive and erotic opera. I’ve seen it as a play, read it as a poem and watched it as a film. I would very much like to hear it as an opera because I bet the voices are powerful and strong.
He rejects her. She demands his head. There’s nudity and the famous “dance of the seven veils” (listen throughout the opera for the tambourine sound every time Salome’s dance is mentioned).
Vancouver Opera’s 2008/2009 season finale is Richard Strauss’ shocking drama of lust and prophecy in Judea.
Here is SALOME.
Live blogging and twittering the Opera tonight is @trishussey @NetChick @Miss604 @Kimli @hummingbird604
I am in Victoria and can’t make it back in time for the opera, but Salome is one of my favourites so I wish that clone was ready to deploy. If I can fit it into my schedule, next performances are Tuesday, May 5, Thursday, May 7 and Saturday, May 9.
Queen Elizabeth Theatre, Georgia and Hamilton in Vancouver.
7:30 pm.
Tickets are available exclusively at the Vancouver Opera Ticket Centre, online at www.vancouveropera.ca or by telephone (604-683-0222).
Richard Strauss’ Salome is based on Oscar Wilde’s French play of the same name, which borrows from the gospels of Matthew and Mark.
Salome rocks because it’s Biblical, erotic, macabre and sensational.
Salome is also controversial. According to the materials Selina sent along:
- At the Berlin Court Opera, the Kaiser would allow it to be performed only if a Star of Bethlehem was shown in the sky, even though the action of the opera takes place 30 years after the birth of Christ.
- In London, Salome was banned by the Lord Chamberlain’s office until 1907.
- That same year, at its premiere at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, there was such an outcry from wealthy patrons that the production was cancelled after the first night.
- Viennese censors would not allow it to be performed until 1918.
Opera Facts
Is there a coat check? And a bar?
Yes and yes!
Oh it’s time for band camp, or performing arts camp. American friends you have the privilege of watching MTV Camped Out this Saturday, 12 pm.
“Summer camp is not just about building fires and making smores anymore. Tune in on Saturday, April 25th at 12pm, 2pm et/pt as MTV News & Docs premieres with a 2-hour special of “Camp’d Out”. This special will take viewers inside the lives of three individual campers: Alana, Lauren, and Mia, and their different summer experiences at French Woods Performing Arts Camp.”
Reality tv. Bands. Music. Teen Madness. What could go better?
Why do I care? Because Canadian band Two Hours Traffic plays the theme song “Stuck for the Summer” and I really, really want it to be summer.
Matthew Snyder roped me into being in love with this band and helping them promote the MTV gig and because I like Canadian music I said yes. We are going to Victoria to see the Weakerthans next week. Independent Canadian music is what keeps me going.
Good luck guys!
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini is a fantastic read. I thought the writing for Kite Runner was also strong but I hated the protagonist. Mariam in A Thousand Splendid Suns, however, is much more likable. Born to unwed parents, Mariam is disappointed by her mother and disillusioned by her father, who eventually sells her to a despicable man many times her age.
Hmm, more background required right?
A Thousand Splendid Suns is set during the volatile events of Afghanistan’s last 30 years. We see through Mariam’s eyes the Soviet invasion, the reign of the Taliban and the post-Taliban rebuilding. Our second main character is Laila, younger than Mariam and the second wife. She joins the family due to a series of unfortunate events.
Khaled Hosseini’s second novel is exceptional. The violence and fear is barely in balance with the hope and faith. The story is intimate, disturbing, jarring and remarkable in its representation of the personal lives of those who suffer at the hands of others.
A tightly written story for sure and definitely worth reading.
Rome, 63 BC.
Aemilia is 6 and offered to the state as a Vestal Virgin. She’s 1 of 6 hand-picked women who symbolically protect the Roman Republic. You know that any book that opens with the girl being thrown into a tomb during the reign of Caesar is going to be a story full of peril.
We have moral sin. Death. Sacrificed animals. Girl-on-girl kisses (the innocent kind actually). Punishment by entombment in the latrine. Slaves. Virgins. Betrayal. Friendship. Love.
Author Sherri Smith lives in Winnipeg, MB. This is her first novel and it’s really well written. I think it’s a nice crossover novel. Great for adults and teens.
Simon & Schuster has a brand new website. Check out the book summary.
Come out to the Shebeen.
Quote:
Old Publishers Have New Think Coming
The Shebeen Club
Monday, April 20, 2009
6:00pm – 9:00pm
What: Old Publishers Have New Think Coming call to arms!
When: Monday, April 20th, 6pm-9
Where: The Shebeen, behind the Irish Heather, 210 Carrall Street.
$15 cash at the door includes dinner and a drink.
And yes, it’s okay to show up without RSVPing first.
Gutenberg was an early adopter. Very few people know that.
Call to action from Monique: I’m going to organize a panel in Vancouver. We’re going to create a model for publishing and marketing books. We’re going to move forward as an industry. Leaders will be identified. Roles will be assigned. If you’re not open to totally change everything you’re doing, then you are not ready for this revolution. Don’t come.
Who’s in?
Monique Trottier is the owner of Boxcar Marketing, an internet marketing company in Vancouver, BC. As the former internet marketing manager of Raincoast Books, she spearheaded major online marketing campaigns, including online promotion of Harry Potter and the creation of the first Canadian-publisher podcast and blog. Her thoughts on marketing and technology can be followed on Twitter at “somisguided” or on her blogs at http://www.boxcarmarketing.com/blog and http://www.SoMisguided.com.